Founding ML Research Engineer

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Founding ML Research Engineer in USA new

Clera
Full time
Email

USA
10/15/2026
Report

San Francisco, CA

Responsibilities

Build evaluation systems using real conversations and user preferences to measure product quality.
Post-train large language models with supervised fine-tuning, preference tuning, and distillation, and ship improvements to production.
Develop and evaluate model routing across smaller and more capable models.
Balance response quality, latency, and model costs across the product.
Improve agent reliability for website navigation, sign-in, and checkout flows without APIs.
Test adversarial inputs, data exposure, and unintended actions, and build safeguards and evaluations.
Apply ML to memory, retrieval, tool selection, and decisions about when to act or ask the user.
Review real conversations, identify improvement opportunities, and help set research direction as the team grows.

Requirements

At least 4 years of ML or software engineering experience in an AI lab, AI product company, or equivalent environment.
Hands-on experience fine-tuning or post-training large language models and shipping results to production.
Experience designing evaluations such as LLM judges, human preference data, or traffic replay for product decisions.
Background in one or more of red teaming, browser or computer-use agents, model routing, or production agents with tool use and long-running memory.
Strong Python skills and familiarity with the ML stack.
Comfort using TypeScript for product code.
Ability and interest to take ownership and set research direction with a founding-team mindset.

Benefits

Annual salary range of $200,000 to $300,000.
Full-time, on-site work in San Francisco, California.

Salary: $200k - $300k/yr

Clera

Clera harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to match high-growth startups with exceptional talent, streamlining the entire headhunting process. This innovative approach simplifies the job search for candidates while providing startups with access to a curated pool of skilled professional...

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